At present, the underlying surfaces of the road vehicles are made from materials which are sufficiently strong to withstand such impacts, so that impact erosion, by abrading, over the lifetime of the vehicle is generally insufficient to affect adversely the operation of the vehicle.
However, the requirement for such materials to be sufficiently robust results in the use of relatively heavy metals, such as cast steel. This, in turn, results in a high overall weight of the vehicle, and consequential high fuel consumption.
It would be highly advantageous to be able to construct the underlying surfaces of vehicles from lighter materials, since this would reduce fuel consumption, but this would normally exacerbate the above problem of impact erosion.
It would therefore be desirable to provide an arrangement which seeks to overcome, or at least mitigate, the above problem.